Publisher and Publication Date: Modern History Press. 03/01/2021.
Genre: Poetry.
Pages: 102.
Format: E-book/pdf.
Source: I received a complimentary e-book copy from Poetic Book Tours. I am not required to write a positive review.
Audience: Adult poetry. Poetry/women authors. Poetry/American/Asian American. Social science/ethnic studies/Asian American studies.
Rating: Good.

Review is for Poetic Book Tours.

Author Info:

Sherry Quan Lee, MFA, University of Minnesota; and Distinguished Alumna, North Hennepin Community College, is the editor of How Dare We! Write: a multicultural creative writing discourse. Her most recent book, Love Imagined: a mixed race memoir, was a 2015 Minnesota Book Award Finalist. Previous books include: Chinese Blackbird, a memoir in verse; How to Write a Suicide Note: serial essays that saved a woman’s life; and a chapbook, A Little Mixed Up.

Sherry’s blog @ Sherry Quan Lee.
Goodread’s author page

Summary:

Septuagenarian: love is what happens when I die is a memoir in poetic form. It is the author’s journey from being a mixed-race girl who passed for white to being a woman in her seventies who understands and accepts her complex intersectional identity; and no longer has to imagine love. It is a follow-up to the author’s previous memoir (prose), Love Imagined: a mixed-race memoir, A Minnesota Book Award finalist.

My Thoughts:

The poems are a mix of strong and varied emotions. Feelings that are in many aspects not resolved. The poems reflect anger, bitterness, sadness, sorrow, and questions that continue to go unanswered.
The poems are a tool used to think, ponder, and reflect on the past. She said she doesn’t have regrets, yet writes about them in the poems. There is frustration in not addressing the hard issues in life.
The poems are about politics, social injustice/justice, division, racism, family secrets, unresolved feelings, and a sense of lostness.

How did the poems impact me?
I feel deep sorrow for her. I have empathy for what she has experienced.
Most of the poems are sad and depressing, but I feel they are an aid to express the feelings inside her, and many of these feelings have been in her heart for since birth.